


Departure Time

by Shadow_Side



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, One Shot, Pre-DarkPilot, Pre-TFA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 21:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5886088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Side/pseuds/Shadow_Side
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment between friends, the night before the galaxy changes forever.</p>
<p>Or: in which Poe Dameron and Snap Wexley discuss the Jakku mission. Eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Departure Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Davechicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/gifts).



> This one is a stand-alone, but it can also be taken as a little prequel to Poe's side of [The Fallacy of the False Choice](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5698945/), the DarkPilot megafic I'm currently co-writing with Davechicken.

Poe Dameron steps out of the mess hall door and takes a deep lungful of the cool night air.

He's gotten very fond of D'Qar. They've been based here for some time now, and the place feels as much like home as anywhere that isn't Yavin 4 ever really could. It might not be quite the same, might not have the history, but it's _his_ , and it's _theirs_ , and it's green and lovely and…

He rests a hand on the doorframe, taking another deep breath. He's leaving in the morning. He's leaving in the morning – which he's done plenty of times before – but this… this is different.

The landing pads beyond the mess hall are quiet and still, lined with X-Wings, all of them seeming to shimmer softly in the moonlight. Poe paces out towards them, following what has become an old, familiar route, staring up at the stars as he goes.

He's had a few drinks. Just a few. Enough that he feels buzzed, but not so much that he'd class as drunk. To be fair, he's more sober than most of the squadron tonight, given the rather spirited celebrations – pun definitely intended – still going on inside.

News of the map has everyone excited. The map that – supposedly – will tell them how to find Luke Skywalker. The hero of the Rebellion. The greatest Jedi of them all. If they can find him… he can help the Resistance, as once he helped the Rebellion.

He can help them make things right. All they have to do is _find that map_.

Poe keeps walking, all the way down to his own X-Wing. _Black One_ sits silently on the landing pad, where he left it after this afternoon's orbital manoeuvres exercise, and Poe lays a hand on the side of his ship, thinking for a moment.

"Y'know, friends don't let friends drink and fly," comes a voice from behind him, and Poe turns.

"I was just reminiscing," he insists, to the man who has apparently been following him.

It's Snap Wexley, the Resistance's very best recon flier, and Poe Dameron's closest friend. The other man flashes him a grin as he paces closer, moving to rest his own hand on _Black One_ as well, watching Poe as he does.

"You gonna tell me what's on your mind?" Snap pushes. He and Poe have been friends for a long time, and a key part of that is Snap's ability to get Poe to admit things he won't tell anyone else – which is important because Poe Dameron is, for the most part, an open book. A bad liar, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and, given his generally easy nature, a man with far more of a tendency to overshare than to undershare.

Which means, when he _doesn't_ talk about something, it's significant.

"Nothing," Poe lies, badly.

Snap rolls his eyes. "Come on, Dameron. You're not exactly being subtle about it."

"No one else noticed," Poe says, which does not constitute a denial.

"Yeah, but I'm not anyone else," the other man retorts. "Now, out with it. You've been weird all day. You were crazy even for you when we ran manoeuvres this afternoon. Bastian still looks queasy, and he's used to you by now. Do you even _feel_ G-forces anymore?"

"Sure I do." That's the point. "Snap, seriously, I'm fine."

Wexley folds his arms. "Poe, you're not even slightly convincing. Out with it. Or I'll fill you with so much Corellian brandy that you won't be able to stop yourself telling me."

"…You have Corellian brandy?"

"Stashed under my bunk. Saving it for a special occasion. Or a best friend who needs motivating."

There is no stopping Snap Wexley when he's determined to do something. Poe sighs. "All right. Come on."

If they're doing this, they're doing it out of earshot. _Well_ out of earshot.

Snap doesn't object, and he follows Poe down from the landing pad and off into the stretch of forest beyond the base. Here, along a little path, through the trees, there's a clearing, with open sky above it, and short, soft grass beneath.

Poe flops down onto it at once, lying on his back, looking up at the stars, and – perhaps used to his best friend's quirks of behaviour – Snap does the same, lying close by, staring upwards.

"Better?" Wexley asks.

"Yes."

"You gonna tell me now?"

Pause. Breathe. "Yes. You would have found out in the morning – everyone will – but… I guess I need to tell you myself. In person."

Snap looks sideways at him. "Poe, what in the Force is going on?"

A soft sigh. "This stays between us until everyone else gets told. I'm leaving in the morning."

"What? Why?"

"I'm going on a mission, to a planet called Jakku."

"Jakku? Resting place of the _Inflictor_?"

"That's the one. General Organa is sending me there."

"On your own?" Snap says, the surprise registering in his voice until it all, suddenly, vanishes at once. "Oh. _Oh_. She wants you to go after the map, doesn't she? The intel says it's there?"

"Yeah. That's right. I'm to meet a contact in a small settlement, way off from Niima Outpost. General Organa has reason to believe he has the map, and is willing to give it to us."

Snap whistles through his teeth. "I see. That explains a lot. So… you're going alone?"

He wants to come too, Poe is certain of it. Partly for the adventure, yes, but mostly because they're a team, and when they fly together they're unstoppable.

And because neither would want to leave the other to face danger on their own.

"Yes," Poe replies, trying to keep all of the emotion out of his voice. Trying and no doubt failing. "General Organa wants me to go alone. The mission is too important to risk drawing attention by sending several of us. So… it's just me. I'm going undercover. Flying on Republic credentials, under their colours."

This makes Snap sit upright, looking away from where Poe is still lying, bowing his own head for a moment. Because… they both know, now, what Poe is saying.

"Undercover," Snap repeats. "Poe… you know what that means, right?"

"Sure I do. So do you. It means I get no backup. No extraction team. If this goes wrong…"

"…You're on your own. They'll… Poe, if the First Order catches you, you'll be disavowed by the Republic. By the _Resistance_. No one will come after you."

"I know that, Snap," Poe answers, softly. "It's why I didn't want to tell you."

"And why you had to."

"Yeah. And why I had to."

They're both silent for a moment, Snap sitting and staring back in the direction of the base, and Poe still lying flat-out, looking up at the stars.

"Of course… there's no reason to suspect the First Order will have the slightest clue what's going on," Poe says, eventually.

Snap looks over at him. "Dameron, seriously, listen to yourself. Do you even believe that?"

No. Not in the slightest. But Poe is still trying to convince himself of it nonetheless.

When he doesn't answer, Snap keeps talking. "It's a _map to Luke Skywalker_. The First Order will do anything to get their hands on it. And if you think they don't know it exists… Poe, they're led by a pair of Darksiders. _They know_."

Poe sits up too, now, resting his head on one knee. "Yeah," he concedes. "Yeah, they know. But they won't catch me, Snap. I won't let them."

Snap sighs, and both men fall silent again. All around, the sparse forest is quiet too, nothing but the odd rustle of leaves and branches to cut the stillness.

"Are you scared?" Snap asks him, finally, and Poe looks over at his best friend.

"No," he answers, truthfully. "No, that's just it. I'm not scared. I feel…"

_…like I'm racing towards something, something huge and galaxy-changing and terrifying and wonderful, and I won't pull up. I won't pull up._

"…completely sure of myself. Of the mission. Of what I have to do."

"I don't doubt that part, Poe," Snap says, in his most serious and sensible tone of voice. The one he keeps for moments like this, when things are too important and too heavy to be brushed off lightly. "You know I don't. I know that when you're behind the controls of a ship, your whole world changes, and when you set your sights on something, you always hit your target. But… that doesn't mean you can't feel fear, too."

"I know that," Poe replies. "But… this time, I don't. I feel… desperate for success. Hopeful that this will go off without a hitch. I feel the weight of what I'm doing on my shoulders. But… I'm not scared."

_I feel something out in the blackness, something waiting for me. Something I can't explain. Something I wouldn't try to explain. Something… that just **is**._

Snap reaches over and grabs his arm. "You be careful out there. If there's anyone who can do this, it's you, but… you be careful."

Poe smiles, just a little. "I will. I promise you that, Snap."

"Good. All right, then." Snap drops back onto the grass, looking up at the stars again. "You know, if you die, I'll kill you, right?"

"Right."

"Good."

Poe drops back as well, and they both stare up at the stars. You can't see Jakku from here – even if the alignment was right, it's too far away – but somehow Poe feels as though he's staring right at it. As though it's staring right back at him.

One of them will blink first.

It will not be Poe Dameron. It cannot be.

Departure time races closer. Zero hour.

One way or another, tomorrow… everything changes.


End file.
